Alternative work arrangements are used to accommodate unique preferences and requirements of employees when they are unable to cope up with the traditional 40 hours work week. A new work arrangement is implemented after a plan is worked out between the employees and the senior management. Apart from the job sharing arrangement, the total time worked and work responsibilities remain the same in case of the other three major arrangements.

Increased productivity, reduced absenteeism, lower attrition rate, better employee-management relations, lower tardiness, higher employee morale, etc., are some of the benefits to the company as a result of alternative work arrangements. Lower stress, greater job satisfaction, less traveling problems, increased energy and creativity, better balance between family life and work life, etc., are some of the benefits to the employees. A company will have a recruiting advantage over its competitors if it offers alternative work arrangements to new employees. The individual benefits, drawbacks and more information about flextime are discussed in the article ahead.

Flextime:

Flextime as explained earlier refers to flexible work timings. An employee has to work for a fixed number of hours per week but is allowed to fix his own starting and stopping work times within certain limits. As per Robbins and Judge (2008, p.94), "exclusive of a one-hour lunch break, the core may be 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM with the office actually opening at 6:00 AM and closing at 6:00 PM. All employees are required to be at their jobs during the common core period, but they are allowed to accumulate their other two hours before and/or after the core time. Some flextime programs allow extra hours to be accumulated and turned into a free day off each month."